VHF P-25 repeaters

[toddman]

We are going to be buying a couple new VHF P-25 repeaters soon. Does anybody have experience with Tait or Daniels repeaters and care to comment?

[nmfire]

No experience with those brands. But it begs the question why are you converting to conventional digital??

[toddman]

That is a good question and something we ask just about every time we talk about radios. We have no plans to run this equipment in the digital format anytime soon, however; the State of ND requires all new grant funded radio equipment to be P-25, the only exception is pagers. I am going to try to get the repeater to be exempt from the P-25 requirement because we will still be using this channel for tone/voice paging.

We are doing a complete radio upgrade for our department. Looking at a mix of equipment. Mobiles are likely going to be XTL 2500s, on-scene portables to be XTL 1500s, portables issued to personal to take home likely will be Icom IC-F70, base stations at dispatch will likely be Kenwoods to allow for easy integration to Zetron counsel and repeaters I am not sure of yet. Motorola just gave end of life notice to the Qunatar so not sure what they will be offering but not sold on the big M's repeaters anyway. Maybe a Harris (MaCom), Tait or Daniels.

[islandfire03]

We have been using Tait For about five years now. Problem free with zero complaints. We got our first repeater after a lightning strike took out our old GE master III .

Then in 2007 bought All new Tait portables and mobiles with AFG grant. Last year rebuilt the town wide system to a multi site voted receiver / repeater using Tait equipment.

Top shelf equipment and great folks to work with. Wonderful response from the corporate folks down in Houston and way down in New Zealand at the home office.

Our lifelong Kenwood service technician , [ former Navy twidget] took one of the new Taits apart to look inside and said to me " Those boys make one hell of a radio"

Coming from him thats a real compliment on the technology inside and the construction.


disclaimer: I have no financial interest in Tait or the sales of their equipment
just a very satisfied customer.


Just curious why you would be mixing several different manufacturers into your radio package. A lot harder to deal with warrantee issues and service items such as programming cables and software.
One brand for mobiles, one brand for scene portables , another brand for base stations , and yet a different brand foe personal issue portables??????
What a logistics headache and more chance for compatibility issues.

[nmfire]

I'm glad your answer wasn't the typical "because itz better yo" and you're maintaining the type of operation that works for you. That sucks that ND requires it.

[LVFD301]

Although my son works for Tait, I would also have to wonder why such a mix of radios. Have you looked at the Tait mobiles and portables? I am very impressed.

[islandfire03]

Although my son works for Tait, I would also have to wonder why such a mix of radios. Have you looked at the Tait mobiles and portables? I am very impressed.

Especially if you compare pricing against /\/\ or K

[toddman]

Some of the reasoning for the mix is as follows.

The Motorola shop is actually steering us toward the Tait repeaters. Plus, the Quantar is at an end of life status with no current Motorola replacement.

XTS 2500 mobiles - This is the radio that the members seem to like the best. Kenwood and Harris were/are contenders since we have not made any purchases yet.

XTL-1500 portables - Nearly every manufacturer makes cables to easily interface to Motorola portables; this is the reason that we use them for on-scene radios.

Icom portables - We have never issued radios to members to "take home" so this is a new process for us. We want these radios to be able to encode and decode two-tone; the Motorola P-25 radios do not appear to be able to do this.

Kenwood base stations at dispatch - The radio shop that maintains the dispatch center is a Kenwood dealer. If we do not install Kenwood we will need to have two vendors involved to make it work; one will do the radio the other will interface it to the counsel... this just sound like a finger point issue waiting to happen.